Thursday, October 20, 2011

Blog Tour: Zombie Church

Zombie Church by Tyler Edwards Blog Tour

Welcome to the blog tour for Pastor Tyler Edwards, Zombie Church (Kregel Publications, October 2011)! Believing there is a way to breathe life back into the church, Tyler Edwards highlights and challenges the problematic attitude of today's believers. Written for the discouraged, disenfranchised, and anyone unsatisfied with their same-old church routine, Zombie Church is an accessible, humorous book that challenges readers to turn away from Spirit-draining (or life-draining) habits that stop them from achieving a full, fulfilling life in Christ.

For all of us who have ever attended First Church of the Frigidaire, Edwards' book will be warmly welcomed. It is a fair-minded and tenderhearted critique. . . . This novel lens of zombies allows the reader to see afresh the desperate need for awakening in the church.
-Mark Moore, PhD, Professor of New Testament, Ozark Christian College

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If you tweet we'll capture your entry when you use @litfuse. If you share it on Facebook or your blog, just email us and let us know (info@litfusegroup.com). Easy.

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TWEET THIS: Zombie Church by Tyler Edwards - a fair-minded & tenderhearted critique of the church http://ow.ly/6Nv05 @litfuse RT for $50 to @amazon

FACEBOOK THIS: Don’t miss Edwards - a fair-minded and tenderhearted critique of the church. http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13424384 Written for the discouraged, disenfranchised, and anyone unsatisfied with their same-old church routine, Zombie Church challenges readers to turn away from hollow religious practices, which characterize “zombie Christianity,” and turn toward a radical relationship with Jesus. Share this for a chance at $50 to Amazon.com

My review:

Zombie Church is a strange name for a book. However, this book is not strange, it's fantastic. Ever been in a church where you can't wait until the final "amen" so you can get lunch somewhere? You're not alone. This book is written for the person who is in a lifeless church, but it would also be ideal for ANY pastor or anyone who doesn't want their church to become something out a "living dead" horror movie.

This book is filled with great quotations such as "Would the community around you notice if the church stopped meeting?" and "Bombs have kill radiuses, churches should have love radiuses where anyone living within twenty miles of a church should know it." Unfortunatately this is the case for many churches. It's become more of a social event or country club and not what it was meant to be.

I rarely recommend books to friends who are pastors and missionaries, but this is one I certainly will.

I expect this to be one book that will be talked about in Christian circles for some time. After all, as a quote in the book says "Faith without heart is what scares people away from organized religion". And I believe that's true because how many people in the United States say they are born again and how many of them actually go to church? What is the main reason for that? Many times it's people who have been cruel to them instead of loving them as Jesus called His followers to do.

This book is a wake-up call to the half-alive churches, and a warning to those who are alive to stay that way! It's an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review of it. The opinions are my own.

About the book:

A creative, entertaining approach to resurrecting the undead church. There is something missing in the church today. Stuck in a rut of routines and rituals, the church is caught up in doing what it is “supposed to do” but is lacking the true essence of what it is supposed to provide: life. Real faith--and a real relationship with Jesus--is not about playing by the rules, attending services, and praying before meals. Real faith is more than religion.

Believing there is a way to breathe life back into the church, Tyler Edwards adopts a contemporary and entertaining metaphor--zombies--to highlight and challenge the problematic attitude of today’s believers.

Written for the discouraged, disenfranchised, and anyone unsatisfied with their same-old church routine, Zombie Church challenges readers to turn away from hollow religious practices, which characterize “zombie Christianity,” and turn toward a radical relationship with Jesus.

While other books have addressed legalism in the church, this is the only book that effectively capitalizes on a popular entertainment genre in order to diagnose and correct the problem. Realizing that even his own church is part of that problem, Edwards has written an accessible and often humorous book that will help believers change the Spirit-draining (or life-draining) habits that stop them from achieving a full, fulfilling life in Christ.

About the author:﻿

Tyler Edwards is the lead pastor at Cornerstone Christian Church in Joplin, Missouri, where he works to help people learn how to live like Jesus, love like Jesus, and look like Jesus—so they carry out the mission of Jesus to the world. He graduated from Ozark Christian College with bachelor’s degrees in both Biblical Literature and Christian Ministry. He has written articles for Lookout Magazine, spoken at various campus ministry events in Missouri, and served overseas in Mbale, Uganda.

Tyler loves cheesy horror films. He is particularly fond of movies like Dawn of the Dead, The Signal, and 28 Days Later, where zombies run wild and threaten to infect an entire town Connect with the author on Facebook.

1 comment:

I've read a number of Christian books telling people to abandon the church as she is a sinking ship, saying things like their is no hope for the church. I disagree completely. The church has issues sure, as any relationship does, but as with anything worth having you have to be willing to fight for it. The church is the bride of Christ when she operates correctly it is beautiful and powerful. The church is worth fighting for, and I hope this book can help remind people of that. Thank you so much for the wonderful review!

Jennifer Wilson is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.”